Catholics why?

Question

do you go to your priests for confessions? The Bible says that no man comes to the Father except through Jesus...not a priest.

Hebrews 4:16 says "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Whhy then do you feel it neccessary to go to a priest for forgiveness? Honest question.

Answer 1

+ Orally confessing sins is recommended in the Bible:

James 5:16 - Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.

Acts 19:18 - Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices.

Matthew 3:5-6 - At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him (John the Baptist) and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

Mark 1:5 - People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him (John the Baptist) and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

1 Timothy 6:12 - Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 John 1:9 - If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.

Numbers 5:6-7 - "Tell the Israelites: If a man (or a woman) commits a fault against his fellow man and wrongs him, thus breaking faith with the LORD, he shall confess the wrong he has done, restore his ill-gotten goods in full, and in addition give one fifth of their value to the one he has wronged."

Nehemiah 9:2 - Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all who were of foreign extraction, then stood forward and confessed their sins and the guilty deeds of their fathers.

Sirach 4:26 - Be not ashamed to acknowledge your guilt, but of your ignorance rather be ashamed

+ Reconciliation +

The Catholic Church believes that "Only God forgives sin."

When a penitent person asks God for forgiveness, his (or her) sins are immediately forgiven.

Catholics also believe that when someone sins they not only hurt their relationship with God, they also injure the entire church, the body of Christ.

Jesus said, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19)

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,"Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (Luke 20:22-23)

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation with a priest ordained in the name of Jesus Christ not only reconciles the sinner to God but with the entire church, including you and me.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

I don't really like the concept of confession, I am a Catholic, and I believe that if you are truly sorry, God will forgive you. HOWEVER, in the New Testament, there is another statement by Jesus to Peter, "Whoever's sins you forgive are forgiven and those that are not shall not be forgiven." Also, sin is not a private thing- it affects the whole community so if you confess your sins to a priest (who, essentially, is there to represent the community), then you have been forgiven by the community as well as God.

Answer 3

The need for confession is frequently stressed in the Bible. The mission of the Old Testament prophets was to awaken in the people a sense of sinfulness and an acknowledgment of their guilt, both personal and collective.

Answer 4

Instead of posting this question on a weird site like this (where you know 85% of the answers are junk), you can study Catholisism. No joke. My wife was curious about her Irish Catholic friends so she went to a Catholic school for a semester. There you can get the truth, not a bunch of one sided defences or rants.

Answer 5

definite, i'm a practising Catholic. I do experience undesirable whilst, at Christmas and Easter, all those "two times a twelve months" Catholics come out - yet then I understand that it might desire to be worse. it might desire to alright be achievable they do no longer come out in any respect. it truly is person-friendly for somebody, who attends Church a week, to flow to Mass on Christmas, Easter, and Holy Days of criminal duty. I oftentimes ask your self only how plenty harder it truly is for human beings, who do no longer attend Mass many times, to get out and flow to Mass some time consistent with twelve months. we can't think of it, simply by fact all of us understand what we'd be lacking. i do no longer think of those "two times a twelve months" kinds can totally savour what it truly is that they are lacking. in the event that they did, that they had be at Mass extra advantageous than two times a twelve months. i'm proud to be Catholic, so it truly is each and every of the extra disappointing once I see human beings taking an "oh hum: attitude in the direction of their vocation as lay Catholics. All we are in a position to truly do approximately it truly is pray, and desire that they occasion we set will, sometime, inspire them to start residing the Catholic existence variety all twelve months around.

Answer 6

Are all of our sins—past, present, and future—forgiven once and for all when we become Christians? Not according to the Bible or the early Church Fathers. Scripture nowhere states that our future sins are forgiven; instead, it teaches us to pray, "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matt. 6:12).

The means by which God forgives sins after baptism is confession: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Minor or venial sins can be confessed directly to God, but for grave or mortal sins, which crush the spiritual life out of the soul, God has instituted a different means for obtaining forgiveness—the sacrament known popularly as confession, penance, or reconciliation.

This sacrament is rooted in the mission God gave to Christ in his capacity as the Son of man on earth to go and forgive sins (cf. Matt. 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed this new power "glorified God, who had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8; note the plural "men"). After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21–23).

Since it is not possible to confess all of our many daily faults, we know that sacramental reconciliation is required only for grave or mortal sins—but it is required, or Christ would not have commanded it.

Over time, the forms in which the sacrament has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed openly in church, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Still, confession was not just something done in silence to God alone, but something done "in church," as the Didache (A.D. 70) indicates.

Penances also tended to be performed before rather than after absolution, and they were much more strict than those of today (ten years’ penance for abortion, for example, was common in the early Church).

But the basics of the sacrament have always been there, as the following quotations reveal. Of special significance is their recognition that confession and absolution must be received by a sinner before receiving Holy Communion, for "[w]hoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27).

Answer 7

Jesus didn't give the apostles the power to forgive sins just because He felt like it...

"Receive the Holy Spirit, whatever sins you forgive will be forgiven, whatever sins you retain will be retained"

Answer 8

We are supposed to go to a Priest in the Catholic religion because they are supposed to have a special line to God to ask for our forgiveness. That's what they teach us in CCD (our religious school).

Answer 9

http://www.scripturecatholic.com/confession.html
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/confession_qa.html

it is all in scripture my friend. the links show you where and why. try also a catechism of the catholic church. again the key to scripture is reading it in context. picking and choosing verses are why there are so many divisions in christianity. god bless.

Answer 10

Forgiveness comes from the person that you wronged, G-d, and yourself..